Posts filed under ‘READER’S OPPORTUNITIES’
Kurt Vonnegut – ‘So It Goes’
When you read the last line of this article, you should know that Dresden was bombed by the British. No matter who did the bombing, war is hell.
Today in Literature presents Kurt Vonnegut – ‘So It Goes’, and other stories about the great books, writers, characters, and events in literary history.
Source: Kurt Vonnegut – ‘So It Goes’
SCIENCE FICTION AND ROMANCE
WAR OF THE WORLDS
For my blog, I don’t write long pieces. I want to make my point and hold my readers’ attention. (Notice I use the plural, perhaps wishful thinking.) Not boring those reading my words.
This may gain your attention. The entry following this discusses a story of haunting romance, a story captivating me most of my life, along with classic science fiction.
I seldom watch movies more than once, but there are exceptions. Every chance I get I watch War of the Worlds – the original starring Gene Barry. For those who may have missed it, he also appeared for a moment at the end of the remake starring Tom Cruise. In some respects the remake has details reflecting H. G. Wells’ classic novel closer to the original movie. Let me discuss these comments in more detail.
The original, made in the 1950’s, scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. The way the suspense builds is magnificent. Unfortunately, after multiple viewings, I have found some incidents which make little sense. For one, when to original ship lands it is too hot to approach, yet when Gene Barry, and his almost girlfriend use the wooden farm and another ship lands destroying part of the house, the structure does not catch fire. Also, for the act which finally results in the death of the Martians is that they venture into a new world without any protective gear. Would a civilization traveling through space take that chance? Maybe, if you enjoy something, you should not revisit it multiple time, and keeping the love alive.
Now for the remake starring Tom Cruise. The weaknesses are strong, yet also keep true to the book.
If you watch the movie you may remember when Cruise and his daughter are trapped in a cellar with a character played by Tim Robbins. I could wrong about it being Robbins. I’ve been wrong before. I believe the character Robbins represents is a minister who is killed by the protagonist in the book. This act of murder is hinted strongly in the movie. But before this event, Robbins tells Cruise the belief is that the Martian machines were buried on the Earth a million years ago. I should mention that the Martians come to Earth by way of lightning strikes to power up their machines. Here comes the ‘give me a break’. It’s like burying a Model T, and in the meantime, your society develops spacecraft able to travel twice the speed of light. Yet, to save your civilization, you use the Model T. Don’t you think that the Martians would have used technology which currently existed?
To the remakes credit, they do depict the Martian’s machines closer in the book than what the original movie. But overall, I feel the original movie is the best.
Now onto the romance.
ARTHUR C. CLARK AND I: WE THINK THE SAME BUT HE IS THE BETTER WRITER
I’m sure you’ve read multiple blogs and messages wishing you ‘Happy New Year’. Well of course I wish you that, but I also wish you a ‘Productive New Year’. Whatever you do, do more of it and do it well. Make this a year you’re proud of and can look back on with happiness. I’m going to try to accomplish those goal. We’ll see what happens.
He is the better writer by about 100 orders of magnitude, but I’m trying to catch up.
But seriously, I am in the process of reading his novel, The Songs of Distant Earth. I was lucky enough to be able to search a mass of science fiction novels donated to a small local library. Books for which no room existed. When I saw this novel in the boxes of donations, I immediately acquired the book to bring home. I’m happy I did for now a novel I planned to write, formally on the back burner, is now going into the incinerator.
Let me explain.
I had written a short story, December Omen, as yet unpublished. I will try to find this work a home in the coming year. The work dealt with the end of the world, not a unique subject, but I thought I had a lock on a new scenario. Turns out, Clark beat me to it. We both end the world, but by different means. We both send mankind into the cosmos in order to survive. I through frozen embryos; Clark through genetic material and robotic factories to manufacture mankind on some remote Earth-like planet.
At this point, let me include a fact I know I read somewhere. Whether it is reality or conjecture I do not remember. Chalk that up to maturity (senility). The article dealt with DNA, a very stable molecule, and the possibility to incorporate information using its structure. What a concept! How much information could reside in a gram of DNA?
However, what inspired this piece was a common scenario in both our stories. In the new planet was created no religions would exist. For reasons look at today’s newspaper or read a little history. I could not believe Arthur C. Clark and I had the same thoughts. The commonality, unfortunately, ends in that single instant.
CARIBBEAN BY JAMES A. MICHENER
Reading a James A Michener novel returns the reader to a time of innocence, and provides an engrossing story. A time when writing a novel was more than flash and sex, when story and content were of prime importance. These are the feelings I came away with after reading Michener’s novel, Caribbean. The amount of research he puts into his novels is truly astounding. He uses these fact and weaves a compelling story around the backbone of history.
It’s been a long time since I read one of Michener’s works. My favorite, which I read in my youth, was The Source. This novel follows the excavation of a well in the Middle East, recording the civilizations and people who existed in the area of the well from the bottom-most layer to the present, the present at least at the time of the writing of this novel.
Caribbean, published in 1989, employs Michener’s standard method, using a vast amount of research to describe the civilizations and populations, the hopes and horrors of the people involved with the area. At the same time creating a story and characters that will hold your interest and provide knowledge of the area.
Returning to the first line of this article. I must say that I am guilty of using more profanity in a short story than Michener uses in a 600+ page novel. How times have change and continue to do so, rapidly.
If you haven’t read any of Michener’s works, give yourself and treat and do so.
Millie’s Eyes
I look into Millie’s eyes
And undying love shines through,
Unconditional love,
True love.
I look into Millie’s eyes
And devotion shines through,
No matter what I am
She’ll be mine.
I look into Millie’s eyes
And often turn away,
The glare of knowledge
Behind those eyes is frightening.
I look into Millie’s eyes
And say ‘I love you’,
And she returns her love
By offering me her paw.
For those who may be interested, there is a picture of Millie under the heading ‘Constant Companion’.
REVIVAL BY STEPHEN KING
Published as a paperback by Galley Books in 2015, with Revival, Stephen King has done it again; taking us on a ride through interesting characters with a touch of horror, maybe more than a touch. I enjoyed this novel. Now let me tell you why.
First, some background.
Stephen King and I are the same age, and we’re both writers of horror. The similarities stop there. King has bucks coming out his butt because his novels sell because they are excellent reads. I just have a butt with the usual production, but I’m working to change that. I love King’s work, and with this last novel, I’m beginning to understand why.
We grew up together.
I enjoy all of King’s earlier novels, written while he and I were young or of middle age, the characters kept my interest and the storylines were magnificent horror. But the age of the characters was unimportant to both me and the work. Then, as he grew old, and life took its toll, his writing began to change, and being the same age, I now strongly identify with the characters.
There is no guide to getting old, thank God, for if there was, some might chose not to. Everyone’s experience is different and unique. There are those who do not have a chance to experience the aches, pains and loss of the purpose they once knew. You know the only way to not grow old, think Marilyn Monroe. They are the ones who suffer the loss of opportunity of time and accomplishment.
Now, about the story.
Revival centers on a minister who loses his faith and a young boy he encounters before circumstances cause this loss. Even after his loss of faith, the minister holds revivals and accomplishes cures using ‘secret electricity’, an unknown form of electricity which he is sure exists. He also feels this electricity will allow him to glimpse worlds we cannot normally see. The result is not pleasant. King goes totally H.P. Lovecraftian at the novel’s conclusion. Being a fan of Lovecraft, I loved it.
Revival is an excellent tale of horror, but it is much more. It is also a skilled description of the ageing process through the life of its characters. Until you are there, advance age cannot be truly described. This is what give a richness to King’s tale. Through personal experience, King does a fantastic job of combining advance age, and bearing the crosses of life’s experiences. I also bear crosses, and am stumbling through the years.
Treat yourself.
Read this book.
ELEVEN MINUTES BY PAULO COELHO
Existing somewhere between clinical and raunchy, this novel explores the world of sex through the eyes of a Brazilian woman, living in Geneva, Switzerland, as a prostitute. The work journeys from one extreme to another, following the woman through her profession and experiences, but maintains a level of literature which is both informative and captivating. After experiencing love found, then lost, she stumbles into this profession more by accident than desire. Although, through following her experiences, both desire and love come into play.
What I found most intriguing was the way Coelho mined the thoughts of a women, especially those of a woman in an uncommon situation of love for sale and profound individuality.
I love this author’s work, and treat yourself, start reading his novels.
BLAZE BY RICHARD BACHMAN (STEPHEN KING)
Written in 1972-1973, this novel brought me a new appreciation of the ‘master’ as I have never felt before. In this story, Helen Keller could have seen the gifted writer which would emerge on the horror scene.
Surprisingly, this work, in the strictest sense, in not a horror novel. There is a dead accomplice giving Blaze, the main character, a brain-damaged man, advice, but he only exists in Blaze’s mind and memory. What I found remarkable about this work is how King creates a multi-faceted who kidnaps and kills, yet you’re able to get into his mind and past and find sympathy for his actions.
I’m not giving away any more detail. Buy the book and fill the ‘master’s’ coffers. You won’t be disappointed.
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